Google has advertised nearly 40 jobs over the past four weeks to help beef up its team working on self-driving cars, according to research conducted by Reuters.
The tech giant is seeking mechanical engineers and others who've worked on vehicle development, car safety and hardware design, according to job ads on the company's website. Google has said it wants to have self-driving car technology ready by 2020.
The current team working on autonomous driving technology at Google consists of about 170 workers, Reuters reported Thursday, many of them software and systems engineers. About 40 of them have automotive industry experience.
An auto-industry consultant told Reuters that Google's potential moneymakers with autonomous vehicles likely include the hardware and software that would power the self-driving vehicles, rather than the cars themselves.
Competition from traditional automakers and the steep price of vehicle manufacturing would force the tech giant to find a partner rather than producing its own line of self-driving cars.
Google declined to comment in response to a request from CNBC.
Read the full Reuters report here.
